Working Weekend

Good Monday to all. We had a busy weekend with Glimmer and Lacey, practicing and reinforcing learned lessons and working on some new tasks. Glimmer had several opportunities to practice her manners when people come into the house (and she did a phenomenal job of it, too. I was very proud of her), and Lacey was given refresher lessons in being respectful and obedient, as well as new support tasks. In turn, Lacey provided a very clear picture of where she needs the most work. In all my years of working with dogs, Lacey is, by far, the most challenging dog I’ve ever worked with…

Glimmer has been learning to use physical pressure to help with pain management. Today, I’m going to continue those lessons with her. This is a new task for her, so I have to hold onto her to help reinforce the action. But, as she progresses, she’ll learn to hold the position on her own until I give her the release command. When she is consistently holding the position on her own, I will start integrating signs for her to watch for that will signal her to act. The end goal is for her to recognize the need and act on it without being asked.

If weather allows for it, we’ll be spending some time outdoors, working on loose-leash heeling, maintaining a proper heel position, and other standard lessons. Glimmer knows all of them but when we’re on a training walk, she goes on alert and watches everything around her instead of paying attention to me. This sometimes results in her being caught off guard when I change the pace or direction, so I’m going to be doing some trust-building exercises with her to help her with that.